The president and CEO of Pocono Raceway, and grandson of track founder Dr. Joseph Mattioli, was pleased with all of the good things he was hearing about the repaved track and the safety features that have been added in recent years.

"Now that we've taken care of the competition stuff it's time to start to working on the fan amenities," Igdalsky said.

It's quite possible that Igdalsky can make some upgrades to enhance the experience, but what the fans want is exciting, side-by-side racing and there remains little opportunity for that at Pocono, where cars will always tend to get stretched out on the 21/2 –mile tri-oval.

Almost all of the excitement in Sunday's race came on the double-file restarts, where cars gambled and risked everything to get out in front, knowing that it was their best and — maybe only — chance to make a move.

In the end, one last caution — the seventh of the day — made for an exciting finish off a restart as Joey Logano tracked down Mark Martin, bumped him out of the way and went on to post his second career victory.

Some conclusions to be drawn from Sunday's race, which, in essence, marked the start of a new era for NASCAR at Pocono:

•The 100 less miles made a difference.

No question, the 40 fewer laps decreased the snooze time and increased the sense of urgency. It forced drivers to take more risks — witness all of the speeding tickets issued on pit road — and it helped to keep the fans on their toes.

It also helped get them home much earlier. Were it not for the last caution, the race would have been completed in under three hours. It clocked in at a very reasonable three hours and three minutes, about an hour less than many previous races.

•The new surface was fast, but still not conducive to a lot of passing.

"It feels like the same Pocono, it's just faster," Carl Edwards said. "You can't move around quite as much, and I like moving around more. But I think it's gonna age. It's got a couple of bumps and I think as we come back here year after year, it'll be better."

"It's just so hard to pass," third-place finisher Tony Stewart said. "It's something that only time and age will take care of. This old race track made it a long time before it had to be repaved. It just makes for a really long, hard day. You can only get so close to guys and then it was a struggle to get by.

"The restarts were insane, but you had to take advantage of them."

•Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still the center of attention.

He still sells the most shirts and gets the biggest ovation during driver introductions, and there was a palpable buzz in the crowd every time the No. 88 car moved out front.

Earnhardt led 36 laps and there were a few times when you wondered if this, indeed, would be the day his victory drought, which reaches four years this week, ended.

But with Junior, it's always something.

"We just didn't want to run out of gas," he said. "I didn't know the caution flags were going to be so long. We're not taking those kinds of chances, just yet."

Indeed, it's all about the points for Earnhardt. He has moved up to second behind new points leader Matt Kenseth. With 12 more races to go, he's solidly in the Chase, but fans would love a win.

•It probably will be much of the same when the series returns in eight weeks.

Drivers will certainly have the pit-road speeding problems figured out after the havoc it caused on Sunday, even though it's still unclear what really caused the mess.

"Things were just repaved, everything has been redone and we need to physically walk down and mark it off ourselves to understand what happened there," Jimmie Johnson said. "We got nailed, along with a lot of other guys."

But as far as the next race goes, expect pretty much the same with most of the action on the restarts.

"I know restarts are always chaotic here, and they were again, and it's always a strategy race, too," Logano said. "They've done a good job at this track, I thought the racing was good. … I know we had a lot of fun with it."